The Rich are Getting Richer while the Poor get Poorer

America has become Increasing unjust in terms of the gap between what the wealthy earn and what the rest of us make. And it has very little to do with abilities. Much of that disparity can be attributed to government policies that favor the wealthy. America has always been about opportunity. That is no longer the case. We have a political system totally controlled by corporations. And they use that power to oppress the 99 percent.

"America's dirty little secret: 42 million people are suffering from hunger" (source)

Things are much worse for people without college degrees, though. The real entry-level hourly wage for men who recently graduated from high school fell to $11.68 last year, from $15.64 in 1979, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. And the percentage of those jobs that offer health insurance has plummeted to 22.8 percent, from 63.3 percent in 1979.

"Half of the people in this country are now considered poor or low-income." (source)

Overwhelming Wealth Inequality Worldwide

"Almost half of the world's wealth is owned by just 1% of the world's population." The World's 85 richest persons own as much as the bottom 50% poorest people. The Top 1% own 66x more than the bottom 50% of the World's population. (source, 1/20/2014)

Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a Standard & Poor's 500 company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study.

Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package climbed more than 50 percent over that stretch. A chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009. (source)

"...CEO pay has risen 725% [as of 2012] over the last 30 years and 80% of all real income growth has gone to the richest 1% of Americans." (source)

Top US and European bankers, including JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon and Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit, have enjoyed double-digit annual pay rises averaging almost 12 per cent, despite widespread falls in profits and share prices, Financial Times research shows. (source)

Incentives for executives grew last year, exceeding comparable levels in 2009 and 2010. Moreover, 17 percent of CEOs received at least 175 percent of planned payouts (meaning they were paid 75 percent more than originally anticipated by the company) last year, compared with just 15 percent in 2009. (source)

Today’s level of income inequality reflects three and a half decades of unequal income growth. The main facts of this story are well known.[2] The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s saw substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s. The income disparity between the richest Americans and everyone else — while substantial — did not change much during this period.

Beginning in the 1970s, this pattern changed. Economic growth slowed and the income gap widened. Today, inequality between low- and high-income households — and between middle- and high-income households — is significantly greater than in the late 1970s. The concentration of income at the very top of the distribution has risen to levels last seen nearly a century ago, during the “Roaring Twenties.” (source)